It breaks my heart, yet I can't even lift a finger to help.
My job takes me to lots of stores.
All the time.
Every so often I find that they have caught somebody shoplifting.
The staff are usually quite pumped by this, as they are praised and in some cases, even rewarded for their vigilance. There is usually lots of action, noise and yes, even laughter from staff, male and female who take some perverse joy from the event and the humiliation of the thieving customer.
If they only looked like movie villains I, too could maybe get into the mood, but mostly they are just poor people.
Kids, Old ladies, young ladies, just ordinary desperate people, who got caught.
Mostly they cry and beg to not be charged.
The security companies that are hired to deal with this each have their instructions and they go about the "arrest" in a professional manner, and from the companies perspective they can't be swayed by tears, of protests, or they would be overwhelmed by stock loss, and tears.
I, however can't tune out the suffering.
As much as I wish I could intervene, and pay for the goods, I too am prevented from interfering.
Most cases involve baby food, or baby diapers.
Clearly when your child is hungry, even honest people would steal to feed them.
I sincerely believe that I would do the same thing if I were put in their position.
That knowledge makes it worse.
The only thing we can do to help is, to do our own personal best, to end poverty, but that is a long game. It offers little comfort to the ones who are afraid.
In the meanwhile I hear the memory of the sound of hundreds of wailing begging young women, and can't lift a finger to help.
The real danger, that I think about often is that suffering has the tendency to harden the heart.
If you witness suffering on a grand scale it becomes less painful every time you are exposed, and someday God forbid, one might not even notice when another person is in pain.
To live life, jaded and uncaring, would be a truly terrible thing.
This is how Monsters are born.
All the time.
Every so often I find that they have caught somebody shoplifting.
The staff are usually quite pumped by this, as they are praised and in some cases, even rewarded for their vigilance. There is usually lots of action, noise and yes, even laughter from staff, male and female who take some perverse joy from the event and the humiliation of the thieving customer.
If they only looked like movie villains I, too could maybe get into the mood, but mostly they are just poor people.
Kids, Old ladies, young ladies, just ordinary desperate people, who got caught.
Mostly they cry and beg to not be charged.
The security companies that are hired to deal with this each have their instructions and they go about the "arrest" in a professional manner, and from the companies perspective they can't be swayed by tears, of protests, or they would be overwhelmed by stock loss, and tears.
I, however can't tune out the suffering.
As much as I wish I could intervene, and pay for the goods, I too am prevented from interfering.
Most cases involve baby food, or baby diapers.
Clearly when your child is hungry, even honest people would steal to feed them.
I sincerely believe that I would do the same thing if I were put in their position.
That knowledge makes it worse.
The only thing we can do to help is, to do our own personal best, to end poverty, but that is a long game. It offers little comfort to the ones who are afraid.
In the meanwhile I hear the memory of the sound of hundreds of wailing begging young women, and can't lift a finger to help.
The real danger, that I think about often is that suffering has the tendency to harden the heart.
If you witness suffering on a grand scale it becomes less painful every time you are exposed, and someday God forbid, one might not even notice when another person is in pain.
To live life, jaded and uncaring, would be a truly terrible thing.
This is how Monsters are born.
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